Transform your mangy pooch into an international doggy superstar! ABQdog.com announces its fourth annual Dogs for All Seasons photo contest. Even if there isn't much chance your hound will ever become an anorexic, globe-trotting, caviar-chowing, canine supermodel, at least the contest is for a good cause. It costs a mere $5 to enter with every penny of the proceeds benefiting local animal rescue groups. Deadline is Aug. 31. Winners will be announced at Three Dog Bakery on Sept. 26. Details about rules and prizes can be found at www.abqdog.com/contest.shtml.

Vortex Theatre

By Steven Robert Allen

A young security guard gets roped into a local murder investigation against his will in the Vortex Theatre's new production of Lobby Hero. Combining comedy, drama and a candy sprinkle of romance, the play—written by Kenneth Lonegan and directed by Zane Barker—opens Aug. 13 and runs through Aug. 29. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. Sundays at 6 p.m. $10 general, $8 students/seniors. To reserve tickets, call 247-8600.

[AC]2 Gallery

By Steven Robert Allen

Spin over to [AC]2 to catch a two-man show featuring figurative paintings by Sean Speigner along with mixed-media constructions by Michael Certo. Speigner concentrates on expressive explorations of the human form. Certo offers up new idiosyncratic resinous paintings inspired by his travels in Eastern Europe. Together these two mainstays of the Albuquerque arts scene have put together an impressive show. Figure/Ground will run through Aug. 29. For details, call 842-8016.

We Art the People: Folk Arts Festival

By Steven Robert Allen

Steve White might've skipped town, but Yardfest—his famous yearly front yard, folk art hootenanny—is apparently going to bear offspring here in Albuquerque for a long time to come. "We were all just so inspired by Steve White's Yardfest," says Mary Lambert of the OFFCenter Community Arts Project, one of the organizers of this Saturday's We Art the People: Folk Arts Festival. "That people from all over the country could come together to promote art that's outside the mainstream is just really cool."

An interview with Jim Hightower

By Steven Robert Allen

George W. Bush should buy himself a black John B. Stetson hat, some second-hand chaps and a pair of silver spurs. Then he'd look like a real cowboy, not just some prep school wannabe with a phony drawl. In that get-up, he could face another famous Texan, the left-wing rabble-rouser, Jim Hightower, a man famous for his gleaming white Stetson, on a dusty drag at high noon, the evil Republican villain versus the courageous Liberal hero, fighting a duel to the death over the biggest political issues of the day.